Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /235 of 264

Algebra Difficulty 6.8 National Olympiad Prove it Romania

Find all non constant polynomial functions f:[0,1]Rf: [0, 1] \to \mathbb{R}^*, having rational coefficients, for which the following property holds: for every xx in [0,1][0, 1], there exist two polynomial functions gx,hx:[0,1]Rg_x, h_x: [0, 1] \to \mathbb{R}, with rational coefficients, such that hx(x)0h_x(x) \neq 0 and
0x1f(t)dt=gx(x)hx(x). \int_0^x \frac{1}{f(t)} dt = \frac{g_x(x)}{h_x(x)}.

Solution

The required functions are f(x)=a(xb)nf(x) = a(x-b)^n, 0x10 \le x \le 1, where nn is an integer greater than 11, and aa and bb are rational numbers, a0a \neq 0 and b[0,1]b \notin [0, 1]. Clearly, these functions satisfy the conditions in the statement.

Since the closed unit interval [0,1][0, 1] is uncountable, and there are only countably many polynomial functions with rational coefficients, there exist an uncountable set S[0,1]S \subseteq [0, 1] and coprime polynomial functions g,h:[0,1]Rg, h: [0, 1] \to \mathbb{R} with rational coefficients such that h(x)0h(x) \neq 0 and 0x1f(t)dt=g(x)h(x)\int_0^x \frac{1}{f(t)} dt = \frac{g(x)}{h(x)}, for all xx in SS. Since at most countably many points of SS are not accumulation points of SS, and SS is uncountable, it follows that SS contains infinitely many of its accumulation points. At each of these points, the rational functions 1/f1/f and (g/h)=(ghgh)/h2(g/h)' = (g'h - gh')/h^2 are equal, so
h2=f(ghgh)() h^2 = f \cdot (g'h - gh') \quad (*)
in Q[X]\mathbb{Q}[X]. Since degf1\deg f \ge 1, it follows that deggdegh\deg g \le \deg h. Notice that the remainder of gg upon division by hh also satisfies (*) to assume henceforth degg<degh\deg g < \deg h, so deg(ghgh)=degg+degh1\deg (g'h - gh') = \deg g + \deg h - 1.

If degh=1\deg h = 1, then degg=0\deg g = 0 and f=a(Xb)2f = a(X - b)^2, where aa and bb are rational numbers, a0a \neq 0 and b[0,1]b \notin [0, 1].

If degh2\deg h \ge 2, since gg and hh are coprime, (*) implies that every kk-fold root (not necessarily real) of ghghg'h - gh' is a (k+1)(k+1)-fold root of hh, so deghdegg+degh1+d\deg h \ge \deg g + \deg h - 1 + d, where dd is the number of distinct roots of ghghg'h - gh'. Consequently, d=1d = 1 and degg=0\deg g = 0, so gg is a non-zero constant, h=c(Xb)nh = c(X - b)^n, where bb and cc are rational, b[0,1]b \notin [0, 1], c0c \neq 0, and nn is an integer greater than 11, and f=a(Xb)n+1f = a(X - b)^{n+1} for some non-zero rational aa.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.